Between the Brown and the Red: Nationalism, Catholicism, and Communism in Twentieth-Century Poland—The Politics of Boleslaw Piasecki

2. The National Radical Movement, 1934–39

2 ||| The National Radical Movement, 1934–39 The Road to the RNR, 1934–35 On the morning of July 7, 1934, the ONR prisoners marched into the camp at Bereza Kartuska in an atmosphere of romantic adventure, singing nationalist songs. They saw themselves as another generation of revolutionaries for whom incarceration in the dungeons of Castello Sant’Angelo, Kufstein, Petropavlovsk, or Warsaw’s Cytadela was a necessary step in the struggle for power.1 Bereza, however, was not a nineteenth-century prison but a twentieth-century detention camp, where prisoners were subjected to harsh discipline, slave labor, and other forms of physical punishment. Days in the camp started at 4:00 a.m. with the morning roll call. With the exception of Sundays, the prisoners worked for eight to ten hours a day at a road construction site. Numbered, uniformed, and divided into large units, they were housed in overcrowded cells. Their daily diet consisted of black bread, coffee, buckwheat, and peas. Solitary confinement and corporal punishment were the penalties for insubordination. At the time of Piasecki’s internment in Bereza, the camp housed two hundred prisoners: National Radicals, communists, Ukrainian nationalists, Belorussian left-wing activists, and a few Endeks. The nationalists enjoyed far better treatment than the other inmates, who were often subjected to beatings.2 Piasecki devoted his free time to reading. The camp library, though minuscule , included the collected works of Piłsudski. The marshal’s critique of parliamentary rule, his early conspiratorial texts from the 1905 revolution, and above all his statism made an impression on Piasecki, convincing him of the regime’s strength. He understood that the overthrow of Sanacja required The National Radical Movement, 1934–39 | 29 new tactics, a view no doubt reinforced by the tough reality of life in Bereza. In its use of prison regimentation and violence, the system was both efficient and utterly modern. According to Sznarbachowski, Piasecki turned his accumulated reflections on Sanacja into a twelve-year plan for political takeover . By infiltrating various political, social, and cultural institutions, he hoped to conquer Sanacja from within. He envisioned a limited alliance with the regime, which, as Piłsudski grew older and sicker, was already beginning to lose its unity. He confided, allegedly, to Sznarbachowski that the differences between Piłsudski’s camp and the young radicals were not substantial and that nationalism could bring the two camps together: “We have to persuade the Legionnaires that by complementing Piłsudski’s thought with Dmowski’s program they will be able to unite the nation.”3 Piasecki was released from the camp in September 1934. At this point, little remained of the ONR. Some National Radicals had joined the youth sections of the National Party; others awaited the return of the interned leaders. Soon, Rossman and Piasecki entered into a rivalry over what was left of the organization. Unlike Piasecki, who wanted to create a highly centralized organization held together by a leader, Rossman and his followers favored a collective leadership and conspiratorial structures under the cover of a legal organization.4 These differences and, above all, their personal disagreements proved impossible to reconcile, and the ONR soon split into two branches: Rossman’s ONR ABC (named after its newspaper , ABC), and Piasecki’s group, which later adopted the name of the National Radical Movement (Ruch Narodowo-Radykalny, RNR). The public often referred to Piasecki’s organization simply as “Falanga” after the press organ it launched in 1936, but contrary to the opinion of some Western scholars this was never an official name, nor was it adopted in tribute to the Spanish Falange.5 Piasecki consolidated his group by stepping up propaganda and recruiting new followers. Among the most active of these was Zygmunt Przetakiewicz, in whom Piasecki acquired a lifelong collaborator and friend. “A man of a direct action” rather than a strategist, Przetakiewicz organized shock troops and became Piasecki’s security expert.6 Relieved from organizational work, Piasecki could now focus on elaborating a political program. He undertook this task in his first book, The Spirit of New Times and the Youth Movement (Duch czasów nowych a Ruch Młodych), published in early 1935. 30 | Between the Brown and the Red The Ideological Crystallization Convoluted and repetitious, The Spirit of New Times and the Youth Movement is nonetheless Piasecki’s magnum opus, the foundation of his ideology . In Piasecki’s view...